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The grand mingling in the Shabri Kumbh
By Tarun Vijay
People came from all over like rivulets mingling in the mighty flow of Ganga. Men, women, children, youngsters, jean-clad girls and dhoti-wearing women with tiny tots securely tied to their back walking at least two and a half kms to reach the Shabri Kumbh venue with their beddings, bags and rucksacks in hands or on their heads. It was an unbelievable sight. To be seen to realise its magnitude and impact.
They came from Haflong, Meghalaya and various villages of Arunachal, Sikkim, Bastar, Ranchi, Garo hills, Lohardaga, Joshimath and Nilgiri hills. Just have a look at the map and see where these places are and where is the Dangs forest nestling the small and graceful site of Shabri where she had waited a lifetime to have a glimpse of Shri Rama and treated him with wild berries tasted by her, to check their sweetness.
That Vanvasis from as far-off places as the north-east, Kerala, Port Blair and Uttaranchal would find it worthwhile to travel thousands of kms to commemorate the memory of a humble forest-dweller pious lady is a miracle and a strong message in itself and shows the inherent power of the Hindu spirit. Warlis, Dhodias and Konkanas, Mishimis and Aos, Herakas and Rongmais, Khasis and Bhils, Bhotias and Oraons all were there. Regions and languages and attires and colours all mingled into one hue and theme-we are all Hindus and proud to be one. Let all the secular Taliban and left creepers wail and beat their chests but the ongoing march of the Vanvasi rights and assertion of their cultural identity shall not be stopped.
They were there to declare in an unambiguous manner-we have a right to defend our religion and the civilisational continuity and give a call to our converted brethren to come back home, because home is where the heart is. The goodies of the entire universe can?t weigh heavier than the simple, small and beautiful path of our ancestors and our cultural heritage. The ancestral path is worth a hundred such worlds.
While seeing the miles and miles of people coming down the hills and village roads making it almost impossible to drive up to the venue where Shabri Kumbh was held. At the venue of the inauguration, a 5.7 million sq. ft. of sabha mandap was reverberating with enthusiasm of a unique rising that India had witnessed only during the resistance movements of Birsa and other Vanvasi heroes against the British. Till February 11th afternoon more than 3.5 lakhs of Vanvasis from every nook and corner of Vanvasi India had arrived and continued even in the wee hours of moon-lit morning of Magh Purnima. It was a unique event in the Vanvasi history post-Independence, whose magnitude is difficult to measure for a reporter who was able to see only a part of the whole event after a hectic day-long tour around the five sq km wide stretch of the venue.
The inaugural dais represented a unique cultural chemistry of Shankaracharya, saints, social activists, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram office-bearers, five highly revered rajas (kings) of the Dangs region, and motivated political leaders like Chief Minister of Gujarat Shri Narendra Modi and Shri Om Mathur, BJP General Secretary and in charge of Gujarat affairs.
Regions and languages and attires and colours all mingled into one hue and theme-we are all Hindus and proud to be one. Let all the secular Taliban and left creepers wail and beat their chests but the ongoing march of the Vanvasi rights and assertion of their cultural identity shall not be stopped.
The inaugural was straight and to the point. Come back home. Yes, the message was loud and clear-those who have converted to other faiths because of any reason, historical or under duress, come back home. Renowned saint Morari Bapu said: ?We are not appealing to any citizen of the Vatican to convert to Hinduism, but appealing to our own Hindu brethren to return to their own home.?
So what?s the fuss about? Shri Narendra Modi, in his inimitable style thanked to Congress, especially Arjun Singh, jholawallahs and the media for helping Shabri Kumbh get enormous publicity through their vicious opposition. He was witty and unsparing to the Taliban element in politics and media who had tried to oppose and put a ban on this peaceful religious congregation of the Indian Vanvasis just because they were emphasising their Hindu roots. Even Supreme Court was approached but it refused to oblige them and a few communalist mediapersons did a ?survey? of the region to bemoan that this Kumbh will result in the destruction of the forests hence should be banned. But none of the tricksters move could succeed and the entire programme went off so well that it surprised everyone.
The five kings of the Dangs were there in full regalia. They are the most respected royalties of the region and Christian missionaries had succeeded somehow to convert three of them, but as the call of the Shabri gained strength, they all came back ?home? three months before the Kumbh was held. Morari Bapu, who conceptualised the event, inaugurated it with revered saints like Asaram Bapu, Swami Satyamitrananda Giri, Shankaracharya Vidya Narsingh Bharati of Karvir Peeth, RSS Sar-sanghachalak Shri K.S. Sudarshan, Sarkaryavah Shri Mohan Bhagwat, Swami Sambhu Nath, etc. The hero of the Dangs ?home-coming revolution?, Swami Aseemananda, who helped Vanvasis of the Dangs save their culture and religion through sheer power of love and brotherhood, mingled with the Vanvasis and refused to share the dais saying, I am a Kalyan Ashram worker, the dais is for the revered sannyasis, not for me.
Vanvasis are quintessentially flag-bearers of Hindu culture and civilisation and without them our identity, our scriptures and Indianness is incomplete, said Sant Asaram Bapu. In the session devoted to the youth, young sannyasis called upon the saints living in the posh maths to come out of their comfortable style of living and walk the rugged path of remote Vanvasi areas to reach and help develop these ?true embodiments of our dharma? and thus serve the Lord and motherland, because for a Hindu serving dharma is synonymous with serving the nation.
All India organising secretary of Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram Shri Gunwant Singh, joint organising secretaries Shri Somayyajulu and Shri Kripa Prasad Singh couldn?t have even a wink of a sleep for days along with hundreds of other workers who were tirelessly working day and night to comfort participants. They exhorted Vanvasis to keep the flag high of Bharat?s culture with confidence. Yes, confidence is the key word that emerged out of this celebration of Vanvasi power and dharma. When a Warli saw a Mizo and Naga shoulder to shoulder with Bhils and Bhotias and Mishimis, all for a common cause and a shared national mission, the kind of morale it boosted can?t be measured in words.
Why should Vanvasis feel threatened in a nation where the Constitution provides protection for their cultural and religious identity? Because the so-called secular governance refuses to implement constitutional provisions effectively and there is a clear collaboration between a section of the media and the aggressive proselytisers to defame, denounce and dump the Hindu Vanvasis while effectively de-nationalising the converted ones, says Jagdeo Ram Oraon, a Vanvasi leader from Chhattisgarh and president of the largest NGO active amongst Vanvasis, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, who is also chairing the Shabri Kumbh Committee. We are not against any religion or institution, but are trying to put our own house in order, hence the opposition to such a peaceful gathering shows nothing but a hateful bias against the Hindu ethos of the nation.
Later in the evening I met the lady pastor of the local C.N.I. church Sheela Shende. Her grandfather was the first pastor of the same church established in 1932. She said we have nothing to fear from such gatherings as the Vanvasis are always non-violent and love to live peacefully, though there are bad memories of some 1998 incidents in this region. This time the administration has given them full protection. ?It is the media reports that make us anxious?, she said. And she was right. In spite of everything going peaceful, a section of the media tried to create fear amongst the Christians for reasons so obvious.
It is noteworthy that the Vanvasis have fought more than 100 recorded battles against the British led by heroes like Alluri Sitaram Raju, Birsa Munda, Sidho, Kanho Chand and Bhairon, Payazhsi Raja and Rani Gaidinliu. And without exception all of them had to resist the onslaughts of the Christian missionaries too, as the battle against the British also meant battling to safeguard their religion.
Take the example of Rani Gaidinliu of Nagaland. She had led a heroic guerilla war against the British and when defeated by the mightier army, was awarded life imprisonment in a ?fair trial? at the age of 16. Pt. Nehru met her in Kohima jail and wrote poetically about her heroism calling her ?fit to be a Rani?, hence the title of Rani with her name. After Independence it was again Nehru who made her see out of jail. Smt Indira Gandhi awarded her the Padma Bhushan and also a Tamra Patra in the silver jubilee year of the Independence. But Kohima Church and the Christian leaders of the NSCN opposed vehemently when a proposal was put up to have her statue in Kohima after her death, because she had declared her Heraka and Zeliangrong movement Hindu and had refused steadfastly to convert to Christianity.
To convert a Vanvasi, his beliefs, customs and deities are condemned, pronounced ?incapable to provide salvation?, his entire worldview is sought to be replaced with Romanised conceptions and way of worship. It was the fear of this aggression that made Congress leader and the present CM of Arunachal Pradesh to create a Dony Polo mission and start highly motivated Vanvasi public educational institutions so that his people are saved from conversion threats.
Shabri, who waited a lifetime to welcome Rama, is believed to have treated the Lord with her half-eaten wild berries in this Dangs (the name is drawn from the original Dandkaranya) area according to the local Vanvasi beliefs. Surely she has emerged as the most powerful icon of the Vanvasi-non-Vanvasi harmony and a unique cultural chemistry. The same place is witnessing today a powerful assertion of Vanvasi right to protect their identity and culture. They have given an unambiguous call to their converted brethren to come back home. In the village of Shabri, it was a revolutionary sight to see highly revered Shankaracharyas, sannyasis and brahmins embracing the Vanvasis and asking for forgiveness if they had been wronged in the past.
But the secular Taliban refuses to see anything good happening to the Hindus. They tried their best to put a ban on Shabri Kumbh, some media persons surveyed the venue in advance and prophets of doom declared the programme a grave threat to environment. Those who happily applauded the fraud of Benny Hinn, came up against a great Hindu event. But all of them have been silenced by the grandeur and peaceful conclusion of the biggest expression of the Vanvasi assertion in our history. This is also a beginning of a new order, which says come what may the march of the indigenous people shall not be halted by the obstructionist hate politics.
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